Cardinal Dolan boosts RENEWAL

Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey’s efforts towards diocesan renewal got a boost at the Centennial Jubilee Formation Conference on March 26 when Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo and a group of bishops from throughout Texas provided guidance to the faithful on various aspects of pastoral care.

Bishop Mulvey is looking at the 13th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops scheduled for Oct. 7-28, for additional guidance. The synod, which is called “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith,” will consider pastoral initiatives programs to assist the Holy See.

“We will be anxiously awaiting the information coming from the Synod on Evangelization and the Holy Father’s post-synodal exhortation ready to follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit,” Bishop Mulvey said.

Over the past two years, the bishop has initiated an ongoing formation and renewal of the presbyterate. Additionally, over this time a renewed importance has been given to strengthening parish life and reviewing methods for evangelization and catechesis.

“I take to heart the words of Blessed John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennia Ineunte that the Church must become the Home and the School of Communion. As I began and continue my pastoral ministry as a bishop of the Church, I have tried to instill that call within my own approach to episcopal ministry and continue to promote a spirit of communion among the priests, deacons, laity and with the Curia staff with whom I work closely on a daily basis,” Bishop Mulvey said.

Cardinal Dolan shared with the faithful in Corpus Christi some of the thoughts he presented to Pope Benedict XVI and his brother cardinals on Feb. 27 when the Holy Father asked him to speak to the group on the New Evangelization in view of the upcoming “Year of Faith.”

“We need to fall in love all over again with Jesus Christ and His Church,” Cardinal Dolan told more than 2,000 of the faithful gathered at the Selena Auditorium.

The cardinal said that Bishop Mulvey has said the New Evangelization has to be the theme and the mission as the diocese approaches its second century. In his 24-hours in the Diocese of Corpus Christi the cardinal said he had detected vitality, promise, commitment, and cohesion “in abundance.” He said the diocese, from its beginning, was marked by evangelical zeal.

Cardinal Timothy Cardinal Dolan shares his thoughts on the New Evangelization with participants at the Centennial Formation Conference at the American Bank Center. (Julie Hernandez, South Texas Catholic)

So what is “new” about the New Evangelization, Cardinal Dolan asked.

After a review of the historical nature of the Church’s evangelization efforts, beginning with Christ’s command to “go make disciples of all men,” Cardinal Dolan said the Second Vatican Council had set out the who and where of the New Evangelization, without giving it that name.

The “Who” is everybody. “All of us, by our very Christian identity, by the sacraments…are called to be missionaries,” Cardinal Dolan said. The “Where” of evangelization is “wherever we are” not just in some distant land.

Evangelization is at the very heart of the identity of the Church. Quoting Pope Paul VI, Cardinal Dolan said, “the Church doesn’t have a mission, the mission has a Church.” The Church is a mission.

“Evangelization is not something extraneous to the Church, it is intrinsic to the Church. It’s at the very heart of the Church’s identify,” Cardinal Dolan said.

In was Blessed Pope John Paul II who first gave this notion the name of the “New Evangelization.” The pope, Cardinal Dolan said, believed that “we need evangelization of people who are technically not only Christians but Catholics but whose faith has grown lackluster.”

“We ourselves need to be evangelized. He [Pope John Paul II] called us back to he Church of the Acts of the Apostles. To be Christ-centered and people-driven,” Cardinal Dolan said.

Pope John Paul II called us to be confident in our faith and counseled us to “be not afraid” and “cast out to the deep.” Pope Benedict XVI is following in this example and calls us to “holiness, which means friendship with Jesus,” Cardinal Dolan said.

Cardinal Dolan noted that today we live in a secularist culture where the Church is no longer at the center of our lives. He set out six characteristics of the New Evangelization, which can be used to catechize ourselves.

The first is that the Church herself is in need of evangelization. Translating a Latin phrase, Cardinal Dolan said, “You can’t give it if you ain’t got it. We can’t give Jesus to others if we don’t have him.”

The third characteristic of the New Evangelization is that the Church does not preach a doctrine but introduces people to a person, the second person of the Blessed Trinity. “A person who revealed truths and doctrine,” Cardinal Dolan said.

The primacy of discipleship is the fourth characteristic of the New Evangelization Cardinal Dolan said. He described Pope John Paul II’s Marian model of the Church in which, like the Blessed Mother, we are called to be attentive to the Word of God and eager to obey God in all things.

The fifth characteristic is that “we got a Church that says yes and not no,” Cardinal Dolan said. “The Church says yes to everything that is noble, and decent, and liberating, and up building and good and honorable,” the cardinal said.

The only thing the Church says no to is to the “negating of the dignity of the human person.” The Church is at the service of the human person, he said.

The sixth characteristic of the New Evangelization is that the Catholic Church is a Church of martyrs. Again, citing Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Dolan said, “If it ain’t worth dying for, it ain’t worth living for.”

“There is someone worth dying for and living for and his name is Jesus Christ,” Cardinal Dolan said.

The cardinal closed his talk, with a challenge to the faithful in Corpus Christi. “The ringing call to this Diocese of Corpus Christi, as we thank God for the first century and recommit ourselves to the future, is will we give the Word a human nature, will we allow the Word to take flesh and dwell among us like our Blessed Mother did?”

After Cardinal Dolan’s keynote address, Texas bishops, including Bishop Mulvey, provided catechists with guidance at the formation conference on a variety of issues that will help advance the New Evangelization.

Bishop Mulvey, along with Cardinal DiNardo, spoke on respect for life, from conception to natural death. The bishop again reminded the faithful of the need to approach this important issue in a pastoral manner, with forgiveness and love for those who place their soul in jeopardy by disregarding natural law.

Parish renewal, a focus of Bishop Mulvey’s episcopacy, was the topic of three sessions. San Antonio Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Cantu led a discussion on catechesis and religious education in parish life and Catholic schools; Auxiliary Bishop Mark Seitz of Dallas spoke on liturgy and parish renewal; and Father Thomas Norris made a presentation on spirituality of the parish.

Bishop Placido Rodriguez, CMF of Lubbock made a presentation in Spanish on evangelization of culture. Finally, Bishop Michael Pfeifer of San Angelo made a presentation on Catholic Charities.